XMM-Newton Observations of Radio Pulsars B0834+06 and B0826-34 and Implications for Pulsar Inner Accelerator

J. Gil; F. Haberl; G. Melikidze; U. Geppert; B. Zhang

doi:10.1086/590657

paper

XMM-Newton Observations of Radio Pulsars B0834+06 and B0826-34 and Implications for Pulsar Inner Accelerator

arXiv:0806.0245 · doi:10.1086/590657

Abstract

We report the X-ray observations of two radio pulsars with drifting subpulses: B0834 + 06 and B0826 - 34 using \xmm\. PSR B0834 + 06 was detected with a total of 70 counts from the three EPIC instruments over 50 ks exposure time. Its spectrum was best described as that of a blackbody (BB) with temperature $T_{s} = (2. 0_{- 0.9}^{+ 2.0}) \times 1 0^{6}$ K and bolometric luminosity of $L_{b} = (8. 6_{- 4.4}^{+ 14.2}) \times 1 0^{28}$ erg s $^{- 1}$ . As it is typical in pulsars with BB thermal components in their X-ray spectra, the hot spot surface area is much smaller than that of the canonical polar cap, implying a non-dipolar surface magnetic field much stronger than the dipolar component derived from the pulsar spin-down (in this case about 50 times smaller and stronger, respectively). The second pulsar PSR B0826 - 34 was not detected over 50 ks exposure time, giving an upper limit for the bolometric luminosity $L_{b} \leq 1.4 \times 1 0^{29}$ erg s $^{- 1}$ . We use these data as well as the radio emission data concerned with drifting subpulses to test the Partially Screened Gap (PSG) model of the inner accelerator in pulsars.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal

XMM-Newton Observations of Radio Pulsars B0834+06 and B0826-34 and Implications for Pulsar Inner Accelerator

Abstract

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